Paris women finally allowed to wear trousers

Well, the title can be misleading. Women have been walking around in trousers through the streets of Paris for decades. But they were breaking the law!

Now the French government has finally overturned a 200-year-old ban on women wearing trousers in Paris. The Minister of Women's Rights, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, explained that the law, imposed on November 17, 1800, had in effect already been rescinded because of incompatibility.

According to that law, women needed to have the permission of local police if they wanted to "dress like a man" and wear trousers. The law has been obviously been ignored for decades, but formally it remained on the statute books.

The law was modified twice, in 1892 and 1909, to allow women to wear trousers if they were "holding a bicycle handlebar or the reins of a horse".

So I guess this says "if a law is stupid, just go ahead and break it".

That's crazy. Can't believe a law like that was overlooked for so long. It's about time they got rid of it. There sure are quite a few criminals running around France in pants.

Incredible really that this law has stood for all this time until now.  Thank goodness they came to their senses

This is a really interesting subject Johnny as there are many laws in the UK that are still in force such as, it is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament because they would be eligible for a state funeral and another one - pregnant woman are allowed to pee anywhere they want including a policeman's helmet!

Wow blue that's unbelievable. Do you think I have to prove that I'm pregnant or should I just pee and see what happens?

Some laws are just ridiculous and need to be put where they belong-the stone age.

We have quite a few ridiculous ones that are stilll on the books here in the US, too, although I can't think of any of them off the top of my head.  I know a lot of them have to do with "illegal" sex acts. 

LOL so funny!

I read about this and yes, it was about time to change that law.